The invention relates to a processing station for a mail processing machine having an elongate machine frame on whose surface a conveying track is located, on which the upper strand of a rotating chain conveyor arrangement forms intermittently or continuously conveyed insert compartments.
Processing stations of the type considered here are, for example, enveloping stations which, by means of introduction fingers moved transversely to the conveying direction of the insert compartments or in the conveying direction of the insert compartments, grip inserts or sets of inserts which are conveyed to them in the insert compartments and introduce them into letter envelopes or covers which are held open ready. Processing stations of the type considered here may also be transfer devices, which remove inserts or sets of inserts at the end of the abovementioned conveying track from a document compartment that has arrived there and pass them on to another conveying track or conveying apparatus. The brochure xe2x80x9cBxc3x96WE Systemtechnicxe2x80x94Ihr Partner fxc3xcr Informationsverarbeitungxe2x80x9d Bxc3x96WE Systemtechnicxe2x80x94your partner in information processing number 2d 287, page 1, discloses a processing station of a mail-processing line with an elongate machine frame, on the surface of which inserts which are to be processed in insert compartments are conveyed. The housing of the processing station contains a hood space which is closed off by housing side walls which extend below the level of the surface of the machine frame, an actuating device for moving handling members being accommodated in the housing. In the known processing station, actuating elements of the actuating device extend into the hood space from a housing side wall.
In the known design, the format of the inserts, or sets of inserts, which are to be handled may be restricted in a direction transverse to the conveying direction.
The object of the invention is therefore to design a processing station of the type defined initially in such a manner that, as a result of this processing station, inserts or sets of inserts delivered by the conveying track in the insert compartments can have a format which is limited transversely to the conveying direction only by the actual width of the insert compartments of the conveying track.
This object is achieved, according to the invention, by a processing station having the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments and further developments form the subject of the claims dependent on claim 1, the content of which is hereby expressly incorporated as an integral part of the description without the wording being repeated at this point.